Shlomo

Internationally acclaimed human beatboxer and World Loopstation Champion Shlomo presents his latest vocal project Shlomo and the Lip Factory, an all-vocal band of 7 brilliant beatboxers and singers. Be warned: it is like nothing you have seen before: incredible, inspirational and totally absorbing.

A Guinness World Record holder, Shlomo gave up astrophysics to perform his amazing vocal pyrotechnics. It was a good move. Since then he has won global acclaim and worked with some of the biggest names in music including Bjork, Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker, Martha Wainwright, Imogen Heap, The Specials, DJ Yoda and even comedians the Mighty Boosh. In the process he has consistently pushed the boundaries of beatboxing, bringing the art form to new and unexpected audiences through such diverse collaborations.

Shlomo launches the new project after a dizzying festival season: introducing Pulp, Chase and Status and Cee Lo Green at Glastonbury, collaborating with upcoming pop wonder Ed Sheeran, and performing his unique one man show Mouthtronica for four weeks at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Raised on a strict childhood diet of orchestral percussion and jazz drums, Shlomo instinctively began making vocal music as a small child. He first found critical acclaim as a beatboxer aged 18 when he began touring with the award winning multinational hip hop group Foreign Beggars, and was named the “Harry Potter of beatboxing” by BBC Radio 1’s Tim Westwood. This was designed as a compliment, we think – either way it wasn’t long until Shlomo was collaborating with Icelandic pop queen Bjork on her all vocal album Medulla in 2004.

Shlomo’s performance on BBC2’s Later with Jools Holland was seen by Emily Eavis who invited him to host a 2-hour collaborative extravaganza at Glastonbury Festival. Shlomo was joined by a host of star names, including Martha Wainwright, Ed Harcourt, Portico Quartet, Reverend and the Makers, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly and Martina Topley Bird in a memorable and moving performance.

Further large-scale festival shows at the Big Chill, WOMAD, Latitude, Montreux Jazz Festival and Bestival have gained Shlomo a reputation as a strong festival favourite, and he was offered a residency at London’s most prestigious arts venue the Southbank Centre. As artist-in-residence, he curates the concert series Music Through Unconventional Means and in 2010 performed the world’s first Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra.

In 2011 Shlomo represented the UK at the World Loopstation Championships in LA where he defeated finalists from 12 other countries. Shlomo’s fascinating live performance technique utilizes a loop pedal to sample his voice on the fly, enabling him to create and rework a huge range of original songs and well loved classics. His looping performances, including a live performance from Glastonbury on BBC2 and an appearance on BBC1 with Jonathan Ross have gained him praise from Bill Bailey, Phil Jupitus and Lauren Laverne, and his videos on YouTube have received millions of views.

After his triumph in LA, Shlomo returned to tour the UK with his one-man theatre show Mouthtronica, which featured an improvised collaboration with a different guest each night, including artists as diverse as legendary percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and Cinematic Orchestra singer Heidi Vogel. He released a charity album compiling all the collaborations from the tour and performed on Steve Wright on BBC Radio 2 and ITV’s Daybreak to promote the project, raising badly needed funds for international aid charity MSF.

Shlomo and the Lip Factory is Shlomo’s latest project – a tight group of talented young vocalists, both beatboxers and jazz singers, who come together to create something bigger than the sum of their parts. Performing an inspiring mixture of soulful improvisations, intricately orchestrated compositions, and all-vocal renditions of classic tunes by everyone from Stevie Wonder to Paul Simon and the Prodigy, Shlomo and the Lip Factory are a force to be reckoned with. Don’t miss them.